Shadow, 3-Canal To Open Carnival Under The Trees
Posted: Monday, February 2, 2004

By Terry Joseph

Hotel Normandie's Carnival Under the Trees opens Wednesday with a star-studded cast including Shadow, 3-Canal, Baron, Sanelle Dempster and Singing Sonia; heralding a season that boasts exclusive David Rudder performances.

Wednesday's show focuses on Shadow, with Dempster and 3-Canal highlighting some of the popular bard's works and Singing Sonia paying a tribute in song to (the late) Maestro. Rudder in his turn is expected to celebrate Grandmaster Kitchener and Andre Tanker.

Billed as Carnival Connection 2004, the Normandie season mixes new and vintage material, bringing together Rudder, Iwer, Bunji Garlin and Dempster in a show called David Here and Now, teaming him with 3-Canal, Ken "Professor" Philmore and Scrunter in David Through Time, presenting him in The Lyrics Men with Warlord Blakie and Black Stalin and in a mini concert during an all-inclusive Backyard Fete.

In addition, Normandie will present four concerts featuring a collection of accomplished artistes. Sooth-singers Denyse Plummer, Kenny J, Baron and Cathy Ella will be join saxophonist Pedro Lezama on Valentine's Night, Lord Superior, Relator, Warlord Blakie, Crazy and the duo Regeneration Now will, on February 18, render soundtrack music from the soon to be released movie Calypso Dreams.

For Royalty Reigns (February 19), the cast includes five-time national calypso monarch Black Stalin, four-time winner Duke, three-time victor Cro Cro, reigning monarch Singing Sandra (who scored her second lien last year) and single champions Shadow and Denyse Plummer. The season closer on February 20 is a show called Kings and Queens, which brings back Plummer, Stalin and Shadow but adds former monarchs The Mighty Sparrow, Luta and Gypsy.

Under the rubric David Rudder comes home to The Normandie, this year's programme was developed in consultation with the Toronto-based entertainer, who took time off from a punishing schedule that includes the composition of some 20 songs for a new Tony Hall musical called The New Lucky Diamond Recreation Club; scheduled to premiere later this year in the US.

Speaking last week from his Toronto home to entertainment journalists gathered at The Normandie for the teleconference, Rudder said he would not be releasing any of the new work (some ten songs are already completed), but will dip into his vintage bag for the four shows he headlines this season Under the Trees.

Echoing complaints about personal losses through music piracy, Rudder said one of his most popular works ever, "Trini to the Bone" (a duet with Carly Jacobs) brought him least returns.

In the circumstances, he did not plan to release another album until enough receipts were realised from last year's CD.

In a preface to last week's teleconference, Carnival Connection 2004 producer Christopher Chin Lee said: "Rudder's decision to step back from the festivities in 2003 and Peter Minshall's firm stance on not participating this year is not coincidental. Rather, it is a reflective statement of these well-resepcted artistes that Carnival as a true festival, needs to evolve beyond its present state."

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